SALT LAKE CITY — Chad Hoover can thank running the gantlet for whipping him into fishing shape.

“I talk to guys all the time about ‘running the gantlet.’ That’s going home and trying to make it in your front door, grabbing your fishing stuff, out your backdoor, past your wife, into your garage to load your stuff up to make it out to go fishing,” said Hoover, pro staff director for Wilderness Systems fishing kayaks. “A lot of the reason you don’t fish is because you know you have to run that gantlet. If you can just call your wife and say, ‘I’ll be home after dinner,’ you’ve already got all your stuff together and you’re there.

“You’ll talk yourself out of fishing if you have to go home and get all that stuff together. This way you’ll become a better angler just because you’ll go more often.”

Hoover, who doubles as host of “Knot Right Kayak Fishing” and “Kayak Bassin’ TV,” is only joking in the way that a part-time outdoors television personality from the Deep South jokes about fishing. Which is to say, he isn’t joking.

Domestic bliss aside, the Louisiana local who has made a career from fishing has recently discovered that he’s better served making his career from fishing out of a kayak, mostly because he carries one with him wherever he goes.

“It started out as a novelty, as an addition to the way I fish,” said Hoover, a former guide. “But I wound up selling my two boats and fishing out of kayaks exclusively now. And it’s not just a novelty. I catch more fish.”

Hoover, who also owns a retail store, a website dedicated to kayak fishing for bass ( Kayakbassfishing.com), hosts kayak fishing tournaments (KBF Open, March 13-16, 2013, in South Carolina) and will retire from the U.S. Navy next month, can list nearly as many reasons why he catches more fish in a kayak as he can job titles. And with the convoluted reckoning of a fishing-crazed salesman who clearly enjoys his own Kool-Aid, he manages to arrive at an endpoint that not only makes some sense but also justifies the objective of so many of us — more fishing.

“It’s an access issue, a stealth issue. It’s about getting into places that other people can’t, but it’s also an education issue,” Hoover said about kayak fishing. “When you start fishing this way, you start getting smarter about the fish. You see the fish more. If I go out driving around in a boat all day and don’t catch any fish, I can chalk it up to ‘they weren’t there.’ If I’m in a kayak paddling 6 inches off the water and I’m seeing them in the bushes but can’t get them to eat, I know they’re there but I’m not doing the right thing. So then you start experimenting instead of moving, instead of turning gas into noise.

“So that education is exponential because the more you go, the more you learn. And with a kayak, I can keep it on my truck and always be ready to fish just by pulling over on the side of the road.”

Basically, the fishing philosophy amounts to equal parts convenience and attention to detail. It’s the fisherman’s job to make fishing as convenient as possible, which provides the opportunity required to unlock the sport’s secrets. Key to it all is the kayak, and perhaps just a dash of misdirection.

That said, you have Hoover’s permission to try this one on your wife: The more I fish, the more efficient I am as a fisherman, so I won’t need to spend as much time fishing.

Just be sure to bring home something for the dinner table. Most likely, you’re gonna need it.

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